MTSU graduate students will share their views on the dual role of feminist and researcher at the final Women’s and Gender Studies Program research event of the spring semester.

“Feminist Standpoint and Reflexive Thinking: Graduate Student Research in Progress” is scheduled for 3 p.m. Thursday, April 17, in the SunTrust Room, Room N127, of MTSU’s Business and Aerospace Building.

The panel discussion, which is free and open to the public, is made up of recent students in the Women’s and Gender Studies graduate certificate program.

The program enables scholars to acquire advanced training and expertise in feminist theory, feminist methodology and fundamental issues in the field. Those enrolled must complete nine credit hours of core requirements and nine credit hours of electives.

Dr. Vicky MacLean, a professor of sociology and faculty adviser to the program, will moderate the panel. The participants and their topics are:

• Shelley Maddox, a December 2013 MTSU graduate, will speak on “Feminist Parenting: A Mother’s Auto-Ethnographic.”
• JaDee Carathers, who plans to graduate in May 2014, will speak on “Situating the Self in Reflective Practice: A Methodological Meditation on Feminist Standpoint Epistemology in Qualitative Interviewing on Maternal Sexuality and the Breastfeeding Problematic.”
• Shaonta Allen, an August 2013 MTSU graduate, will speak on “My Sister’s Keeper: Reflections on Black Sisterhood, Feminist Consciousness and Sorority Life.”
• Felicia Brown, who plans to graduate in May 2014, will speak on “Multicultural Identities among Minority Women Living in the U.S.: Toward a Transformative Knowledge.”

A discussion period will follow the panelists’ presentations.

A searchable campus map with parking details is available at http://tinyurl.com/MTSUParkingMap13-14.

For more information, contact Marie Harrell with the Women’s and Gender Studies Program at 615-898-5910 or womenstu@mtsu.edu.

— Gina K. Logue (Gina.Logue@mtsu.edu)